Grade 2
Grade 5
Grade 11
Kindergarten
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
End of Summer Trip to Southern Alberta
Jess's youngest brother Paul came home from his mission to Toronto at the end of August so we packed up the kids for one more summer road trip and drove down to southern Alberta.
Our first day there, we drove out to Waterton. It had been a couple of years since we'd climbed Bear's Hump and I really wanted us to do that again. After some initial grumbling and whining, (except for Shae - hers was more extended - but I'm starting to accept that as a constant state of affairs with teenagers) it went really well and the kids were really proud of themselves for their accomplishment when they reached the top (which is exactly what I wanted to have happen). When we reached the top, Hudson exclaimed, "You should buy me hiking poles for my birthday because I'm a really good mountain climber!" Besides the amazing view, the refreshing breeze, and the sense of accomplishment, they also really enjoyed the chubby, well-fed squirrels who brazenly approached us to try and take some of our trail mix. One fat little squirrel even climbed right up onto Connor's leg.
We ate lunch with the family (grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins). This is a grumpy James with Spencer - James had a cold this weekend so he wasn't very smiley.
Jess went on a photography excursion in the evening and took some photos of the park. This is a particularly lovely shot of Cameron Falls.
Back in Raymond, we had a hot dog roast in the backyard and dragged the kids off too bed far too early for their liking.
Jess took this picture on the front step of his parents' house on the day we said good-bye to Paul two years ago so we re-created the photo two years later. Except we made sure we could see Shae's face this time.
Our first day there, we drove out to Waterton. It had been a couple of years since we'd climbed Bear's Hump and I really wanted us to do that again. After some initial grumbling and whining, (except for Shae - hers was more extended - but I'm starting to accept that as a constant state of affairs with teenagers) it went really well and the kids were really proud of themselves for their accomplishment when they reached the top (which is exactly what I wanted to have happen). When we reached the top, Hudson exclaimed, "You should buy me hiking poles for my birthday because I'm a really good mountain climber!" Besides the amazing view, the refreshing breeze, and the sense of accomplishment, they also really enjoyed the chubby, well-fed squirrels who brazenly approached us to try and take some of our trail mix. One fat little squirrel even climbed right up onto Connor's leg.
Here's what Bear's Hump looks like from the ground:
And here's the view from the top:
We ate lunch with the family (grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins). This is a grumpy James with Spencer - James had a cold this weekend so he wasn't very smiley.
Jess went on a photography excursion in the evening and took some photos of the park. This is a particularly lovely shot of Cameron Falls.
Back in Raymond, we had a hot dog roast in the backyard and dragged the kids off too bed far too early for their liking.
The next day, we drove into Lethbridge to Henderson Lake for a Schindler family reunion. Jess brought out the fishing gear and was soon surrounded by nieces and nephews who wanted to help fish. The lake was full of large fish, you could even see them leisurely swimming along the surface with their fins poking out of the water, the way a shark swims, no more than ten or twenty feet away from the edge of the water, but no one ever caught anything more than a hook full of weeds.
Even so, it was the first time fishing for many of the kids there so even weeds were pretty exciting.
With some not so subtle encouragement from me, Maira hit it off with her cousin Avery and they had a great time playing together.
The theme was science and Avery's mom, Adrienne, is a scientist, and she bravely agreed to run a science demo for the kids (there had to be at least a couple dozen kids under the age of ten).
The next day was Ron's birthday as well as Paul's homecoming talk at church. Of course, we ate homegrown watermelon at the family dinner to celebrate (watermelon is Ron's favourite food and something he's very good at growing). Here he is with a 26-pound watermelon baby.
Jess took this picture on the front step of his parents' house on the day we said good-bye to Paul two years ago so we re-created the photo two years later. Except we made sure we could see Shae's face this time.
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Water War Game
Connor had seen an excerpt from the Tonight Show where Jimmy Fallon plays the Water War game with a guest and so when it was his turn to pick the game for Family Home Evening last week, he chose the Water War game.
We used smaller cups than the ones they use on TV and I said no to the giant super soaker that they use on TV against the loser to make sure no one got upset and we went out to the back deck to play.
http://youtu.be/qtX5AI4U1nU
We used smaller cups than the ones they use on TV and I said no to the giant super soaker that they use on TV against the loser to make sure no one got upset and we went out to the back deck to play.
http://youtu.be/qtX5AI4U1nU
Camping At William A Switzer
We had time for one last camping trip this summer and we wanted to go to Jasper. But I left it too late to book a campsite in the park so we camped in a provincial campground near Jasper instead: William A. Switzer, just north of Hinton.
We'd never been here before and so we didn't know what to expect. It's in the foothills with the Rocky mountains on the horizon and lots of pretty lakes. So it's a beautiful spot to spend some time. It's nice that it's about a 20-minute drive from Hinton where we could buy anything we needed. The campground we stayed at had really clean bathrooms and a nice playground and very few mosquitoes or wasps so that was wonderful. The only negative I can think about at all was that the campsites weren't as well-treed as we're used to so there wasn't as much privacy as we would prefer. The first night we got there, there was a program put on at the playground for kids where they could go and learn all about owls.
We took one day to drive to Jasper and spend the day there. We were going to drive to the Edith Cavell glacier because we'd heard it was an easy but beautiful hike but the road was closed due to a mudslide. So instead we drove to Athabasca Falls.
Along the way, of course, we saw some wildlife. One time, we saw a family of mountain sheep (? I think? I always get mountain sheep and mountain goats mixed up) out on a cliff beside the road.
We saw a bear walking through the woods parallel to the road. We slowed down and drove along at the same pace but it never came close enough to the road for us to get a good picture, this is the best one we could get:
And this magnificent elk was grazing right beside the highway, there were dozens and dozens of cars stopped to take his picture:
We'd never been to Athabasca Falls before. It was a pretty popular place to visit with people everywhere but I can see why because it was a spectacular thing to look at. At different times, the landscape reminded me of the Last of the Mohicans, at other times, it was like being in a Group of Seven painting. The mist in one place reminded me of Niagara Falls and the crooked mossy paths carved through layers of stone reminded me of the Lord of the Rings. It was all very other worldly.
Later we decided to visit the Miette hot springs, another first for us. It was actually a stressful drive because neither Jess nor I realized how far off the highway it was when we started and our van was at less than a quarter of a tank of gas. The road to the hot springs wound up the side of a mountain for a good 15 kilometres of switchbacks and when we got back into the van after swimming, the low fuel light was on so we all thought light thoughts and hoped and prayed we'd make it back to the main highway without running out of gas which we fortunately did. In fact, we made it to Hinton with 3 litres still left in the tank. Phew.
The hot springs were lovely and it was fun having two hot pools and two cold pools so that if you were feeling really brave, you could jump from the hot pool into the cold pool and then back again. Shae did it first so then I decided to try and and asked Connor to go with me. He agreed but then thought he was pretty hilarious when he backed out at the last second after I was already jumping in. Jess picked him up and was going to throw him in after me but then thought the lifeguards might frown on that so Connor escaped a dunking in the ice water. I actually really enjoyed it, it was really bracing and it was an interesting feeling, the way your feet kind of burn but a cold burn when you go back in the hot pool.
A storm rolled in while we were swimming and it started to rain. This was pretty much the only rain of our camping trip and for it to happen while we were already wet was absolutely perfect. Hudson thought it was fun to drink the rain while he was in the hot springs.
That night at the campfire, Jess gave the kids glowsticks. The ate s'mores and, in Connor's case, read comics, by the light of the campfire and their glowsticks.
The next day, we spent some time at a charming little lake called Kelley's Bathtub. I think it's actually attached to a much bigger lake, Jarvis Lake, the lake you see in the background, but Kelley's Bathtub is an almost perfectly round lovely little lake with clear water that is refreshingly cool but not cold and small sandy beach. I don't usually like to swim in lakes but this one was so inviting that I swam right out to the middle of the lake and back twice. It was beautiful.
We'd never been here before and so we didn't know what to expect. It's in the foothills with the Rocky mountains on the horizon and lots of pretty lakes. So it's a beautiful spot to spend some time. It's nice that it's about a 20-minute drive from Hinton where we could buy anything we needed. The campground we stayed at had really clean bathrooms and a nice playground and very few mosquitoes or wasps so that was wonderful. The only negative I can think about at all was that the campsites weren't as well-treed as we're used to so there wasn't as much privacy as we would prefer. The first night we got there, there was a program put on at the playground for kids where they could go and learn all about owls.
That night we tried butter cinnamon apples in the campfire.
We took one day to drive to Jasper and spend the day there. We were going to drive to the Edith Cavell glacier because we'd heard it was an easy but beautiful hike but the road was closed due to a mudslide. So instead we drove to Athabasca Falls.
Along the way, of course, we saw some wildlife. One time, we saw a family of mountain sheep (? I think? I always get mountain sheep and mountain goats mixed up) out on a cliff beside the road.
We saw a bear walking through the woods parallel to the road. We slowed down and drove along at the same pace but it never came close enough to the road for us to get a good picture, this is the best one we could get:
And this magnificent elk was grazing right beside the highway, there were dozens and dozens of cars stopped to take his picture:
We'd never been to Athabasca Falls before. It was a pretty popular place to visit with people everywhere but I can see why because it was a spectacular thing to look at. At different times, the landscape reminded me of the Last of the Mohicans, at other times, it was like being in a Group of Seven painting. The mist in one place reminded me of Niagara Falls and the crooked mossy paths carved through layers of stone reminded me of the Lord of the Rings. It was all very other worldly.
This is how wet our hair got, just from the mist off the falls.
Later we decided to visit the Miette hot springs, another first for us. It was actually a stressful drive because neither Jess nor I realized how far off the highway it was when we started and our van was at less than a quarter of a tank of gas. The road to the hot springs wound up the side of a mountain for a good 15 kilometres of switchbacks and when we got back into the van after swimming, the low fuel light was on so we all thought light thoughts and hoped and prayed we'd make it back to the main highway without running out of gas which we fortunately did. In fact, we made it to Hinton with 3 litres still left in the tank. Phew.
The hot springs were lovely and it was fun having two hot pools and two cold pools so that if you were feeling really brave, you could jump from the hot pool into the cold pool and then back again. Shae did it first so then I decided to try and and asked Connor to go with me. He agreed but then thought he was pretty hilarious when he backed out at the last second after I was already jumping in. Jess picked him up and was going to throw him in after me but then thought the lifeguards might frown on that so Connor escaped a dunking in the ice water. I actually really enjoyed it, it was really bracing and it was an interesting feeling, the way your feet kind of burn but a cold burn when you go back in the hot pool.
A storm rolled in while we were swimming and it started to rain. This was pretty much the only rain of our camping trip and for it to happen while we were already wet was absolutely perfect. Hudson thought it was fun to drink the rain while he was in the hot springs.
That night at the campfire, Jess gave the kids glowsticks. The ate s'mores and, in Connor's case, read comics, by the light of the campfire and their glowsticks.
Later they had fun making shapes with their glowsticks while Jess kept the shutter open on his camera:
The next day, we spent some time at a charming little lake called Kelley's Bathtub. I think it's actually attached to a much bigger lake, Jarvis Lake, the lake you see in the background, but Kelley's Bathtub is an almost perfectly round lovely little lake with clear water that is refreshingly cool but not cold and small sandy beach. I don't usually like to swim in lakes but this one was so inviting that I swam right out to the middle of the lake and back twice. It was beautiful.
We ended up still being on our camping trip on our anniversary. It was our 18th anniversary. Jess stayed up late after we all went to bed and the next morning he showed me what he'd been doing: he'd been working on a present for me using glowsticks and his camera:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)